Great Moments in Travel History – September 2015

Chicago’s Palmer House hotel opened its doors on September 26, 1871, a mere 13 days before the Great Chicago Fire.  The structure did not survive the blaze and had to be rebuilt.  It reopened in 1875.

John Jacob Astor IV’s St. Regis hotel in New York City opened on September 4, 1904. The property is known for its iconic King Cole Bar, the centerpiece of which is Maxfield Parrish’s “Old King Cole” painting that had been created for Astor’s short-lived Knickerbocker Hotel on Broadway.  Astor died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

On September 1, 1910, Glenn H. Curtiss made a return flight over Lake Erie from Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio to Euclid Beach in Cleveland in an hour and forty-two minutes.  While he did not break his August record for the longest flight over water, he did average around 55 mph (88.5 km/h) in his biplane, securing the record for the reverse course.

The Roosevelt Hotel, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt and located on Madison Avenue and 45th Street in Manhattan, opened on September 22, 1924.  The hotel has appeared and been referenced in several major films and television shows, including “The French Connection,” “Wall Street,” “Maid in Manhattan,” “Man on a Ledge,” and “Mad Men.”

Two Douglas World Cruisers, Chicago and New Orleans, completed an around-the-world flight on September 28, 1924.  Originally, four aircraft had set out on the expedition (the Boston and Seattle were the other two, but these crashed during the trip).

On September 20, 1932, Douglas was awarded a contract by TWA to build a prototype of the DC-1, a two-pilot, 12-passenger plane.  The agreement also gave TWA options for 60 additional aircraft.

Air Canada’s predecessor, Trans-Canada Air Linesinaugurated service carrying two passengers and mail between Vancouver and Seattle aboard a Lockheed L-10A Electra on September 1, 1937.

On September 20, 1945, a converted British Gloster Meteor, the first operational British jet fighter, the only Allied jet fighter to see combat in World War II, made its first flight as the test bed for the Rolls Royce Trent-engines that had five-bladed propellers.  The aircraft pioneered turboprop power and the one-off model was retired in 1948.

American Airlines Flight 723, a Convair 240, crashed on September 16, 1953, while on approach to Albany Airport in New York.  All 28 passengers and crew members perished.

September 17 marks the 107th anniversary of the first fatality incurred in a crash of a powered heavier-than-air aircraft. On September 17, 1908, U.S. Army Signal Corps Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge died as the Orville Wright piloted plane he was a passenger in crashed and severely injured Wright.

On September 28, 1956, William Boeing died aboard his yacht, the Taconite.  Boeing founded the Pacific Aero Products Co. in 1916, which would later become Boeing Airplane Company.

On September 18, 1959, the Douglas DC-8 entered service simultaneously with United Airlines and Delta Air Lines.  The aircraft is a four-engine, long-range, single-aisle jet airliner.

On September 11, 1966, Collett Everman Woolman, one of the four founders of Delta Air Lines, passed away.  In 1928, Woolman purchased Huff Daland Dusters and renamed it Delta Air Service.

Click here to continue to Page 2 – 1,000th 747, September 11 Attacks, and the First Dreamliner

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